The criteria: good to look at, good to work with, free and conforming to Android app design standards (or bending it in a good way!) How else would you define beautiful Android apps as a term?

Also, in keeping with the spirits of our last list, I have disregarded more popular apps such as Flipboard, Currents, Google+, Pocket and so on. In fact, the only truly popular app here is Evernote for reasons you will see below.

So, without further ado, take a look at these ten apps and download them all too!

1. Circle

Find out who’s around

Perhaps the newest app on this list, Circle, lets you find out which of your friends from various social networks are nearby. While it is not the first, and certainly not the only, location-aware friend-finder app we have seen, nobody quite does it as beautifully as circle.

It is minimalist, straightforward and feels simply beautiful to use. If you have even the teeniest life on the social web, download it without a second thought.

2. Zombies, run! 5k training

The fitness run app that makes running fun

If you are the kind of person whose talent is to come up with reasons for not finishing that long fitness run you planned for six months, this app might help you put an end to it — and do so beautifully.

While it may not be the most beautiful app here, it definitely is among the most interesting and boasts the most beckoning layout. It also has a unique approach to make fitness (or any other type of) running actually fun.

3. TuneIn Radio

A flawless and functional online radio

Who listens to radio in this century? Me. And quite a few others, I am happy to report. So, of the many great radio apps on the Play Store, I would vouch for TuneIn any day.

It looks great, of course, is reliable, extremely well laid, carries a great search function and has near-perfect buffering with — in my experience — less than a few seconds lost over an hour’s usage or so. Besides, it has all my favourite radio stations that I can store as favourites for quick access from the homepage.

4. Snapseed

To Google+ what Instagram is to Facebook

Would this list be complete without it? Google (sort of contrasting to Facebook’s Instagram acquisition) recently bought one of the best and most functional smartphone photo editors on the market: Snapseed. So, not unexpectedly, there is an even more beautiful Google+ integration built into it.

Snapseed’s unique and very powerful approach to photo editing, combined with its limitless control and broad range of options, makes it a must have photo editing app.

5. Evernote

Make your day even more productive

I need hardly say anything about the almost legendary Evernote. But I already have a seven-part article series you can read on that. Evernote is a namesake note-taking app, but really a full-scale, cross-platform, cross-device digital assistant in earnest.

6. Slices for Twitter

A better Twitter client

There are several desktop and mobile Twitter clients out there, and, while I myself used to use TweetDeck, I never really caught onto it as much as I did with Slices for Twitter.

Slices is great, looks great, handles equally well and even has a unique feature of organising followers by type (e.g. physicists, painters, web designers, journalists, lawyers and so on) and then choose to view tweets only from those group members.

7. The Verge

Mimics the website’s techie look

I do not believe in getting my dose of technology news from a single source (unless that source happens to be TNW) but for those who would take The Verge’s word over others’ this news reader app from the tech website is quite great.

It has a neat, involving layout (better than Nilay Patel’s own tumblr in any case) and can easily be a pleasure to read.

8. Nike Training Club

Your own fitness app, full-time, fully free

On our last list we already saw another of Nike’s great apps, Nike+ Running. This time, Nike made another one into the list: the popular Nike Training Club app. It is a fitness trainer app that gives you stuff to do and straight from popular trainers worldwide, at that.

One of the most popular complaints about this app (which is even a little amusing, if you ask me,) is that it appears to be targeted for women. What do I have to say? You will never know until you try.

9. Touchnote Cards

Postcards done right

The old-fashioned part of me (which is every part of me) loves to send postcards to myself back home from where ever I am. And I have been using Touchnote for that ever since the service popped up on the Play Store. Touchnote allows you to shoot or choose a picture, write something at the back of the post card (if you tout a phone like the GALAXY Note line, you can actually write in your own hand!) then mention the address and send it off.

Within the U.S. it supposedly arrives within a day or two; outside, it has taken me as long as two weeks, but often much earlier even when I sent it to somebody else and not to my own house.

I also think I should commend their wonderful service: once a card I sent showed up as “delivered” on the billing, but was not delivered and the guys at Touchnote were kind enough to immediately send me another one, no questions asked, at no extra costs and it arrived.

10. News360 (with separate phone and tablet versions)

A fresh, new approach to the same, old news aggregation

I am a fan of Pulse, once in a while News Republic or News360. In fact, if I had not come across Pulse first and saved so many stories there, News360 would probably be my news aggregation service of choice, given how — as I said before — I prefer my news doses from several sources.

The best part about News360 is that it gives you the option to use Evernote or Google+ acounts to automatically set up and configure your aggregation preferences without you having to do any work at all. If news is your thing and you like it in small, select doses, you cannot go wrong picking News360 for your phone or tablet.

And that is our list of the most beautiful apps from various different categories for you to download as we head to 2013. Do you know any not mentioned on this list or our previous list? Share it with us; comment below.

Who is V.H. Belvadi?

He's a physics post-grad doing his research at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.
He's also a photographer, writer and short filmmaker by hobby, and he plays the violin or reads voraciously in his spare time.

What is this website?

This is V.H. Belvadi's personal website and blog. He chronicles his life and thoughts here and you are free to read and share anything that you find interesting.
This is his home on the web.

What’s next?

You can follow V.H. Belvadi elsewhere on the web using the links provided on this page. He is active on Twitter, Instagram, Ello and Google+. You can also contact him via e-mail from the contact page.